When you look from a distance at the domes of the Olympic Park stadiums in Sochi, surrounded by a triple ring of fences, you quickly forget that this is a space for sports competitions and a symbol of the success of the new Russia. Broken eggshells come to mind. Now the omelette seems to have been eaten to the last crumb, and the Radio Liberty correspondent, having visited Sochi, fully felt the aftertaste.
I arrived in Sochi on a double-decker train; this train, running on the Moscow-Adler route, was specially launched for the Olympic Games. It is still possible to get to the south on it, and for exactly the same money as from Moscow to St. Petersburg, despite the distance being twice as long. Leaving the comfortable carriage, in which I could use, albeit slowly, but still working wireless Internet along the way, I did not believe that I was in Russia. On one side is the sea embankment behind a chain of palm trees. On the other is a huge, shiny station building in the shape of a wing. And in the distance behind him are snowy mountain peaks.
From a special machine I purchased a ticket for the Lastochka train to the Olympic Village station for 17 rubles. A few minutes later, a silent Siemens carriage was taking me towards post-Olympic Sochi.
MIRLNY VILLAGE – STATE FARM “RUSSIA”
I stayed in the village of Mirny, one of the suburbs of Adler in the Imereti Lowland, surrounding the Olympic Park. Mirny is separated from the sea by brand new Olympic facilities, which means a dozen three-meter-high fences. Neat fences - made of boards, metal mesh, barbed wire - are the first thing that catches your eye. “Fenced edge,” the locals joke. The time is still early, around 9 am, and there are almost no people on the streets
Passers-by. Occasionally there are people who look more like visiting workers than local residents or tourists. A couple of times I see women with strollers. In the shade of nice wooden fences, the same throughout the village, dogs are resting - it is not clear whether they are domestic or stray. All buildings have been recently renovated, every third one was built just a year or two ago. Most of the houses are covered with almost identical red roofs. On many gates there is a sign: “For sale.”
We meet with Viktor Kobylin, an enterprising local resident, a public representative of one of the neighborhoods of the village of Mirny. Victor is a large, fair-haired man who looks more like a Siberian than a Sochi resident. It turns out that he was born in the Far East, studied in Omsk, and has only lived here for the last ten years.
I share with Kobylin my first, quite favorable impressions.
– I agree, at least they built excellent roads. Gas will probably be provided eventually. They built a thermal power plant in Adler - problems with electricity almost stopped. The village has become much cleaner, although before construction began it was greener. All that remains is to remove the various black touches. The administration should end the euphoria that they were not dispersed, and they should take care of our problems.
A sprinkler passes by, washing away dust from the asphalt path. It was impossible to imagine such a thing in the village just a few years ago, and there was nothing special to wash.
Kobylin is clearly an optimist, and an active optimist at that. As it turns out, there are plenty of black little things, it’s just that some of them are hiding behind brand new fences, while others are literally buried in the ground. Even at the beginning of the Olympic construction, the village, which was preparing to receive hordes of Games guests, was promised sewerage and gas. Gas pipes are connected, they stick out of the ground in almost every house. But there is no gas in them. “The gas workers were in a hurry, and as a result the pipe was simply laid incorrectly,” explains Kobylin. – When the test pressure was given, the pipe began to level out and float due to vibration. In some places it is located at a depth of 20-30 centimeters from the road surface, and according to the standard it should be buried almost two meters. That’s why they don’t give us gas - they don’t understand how it will work. Gas comes to our distribution station in the village, but it doesn’t go further because it’s simply dangerous.”
Now Kobylin expects that “smart people will think about how to fix this,” and, hopefully, local residents will be able to heat their homes not only with wood, diesel fuel and electric heaters. By the way, during the Olympic Games it was forbidden to heat with wood, so that the smoke coming from the chimneys would not spoil the decent picture. But the lack of sewerage could only spoil the atmosphere: in Mirny there is still a specific smell in some places. Unlike gas pipes, sewer pipes were not laid at all.
“The initial project was prepared by an organization from Rostov that deals with some kind of nanotechnology,” says Kobylin. – We wanted to make some kind of special vacuum sewer, because we are located in the lowlands, below sea level. We thought for a long time, then we realized that there was not enough money in the budget for this. As a result, the project was finally closed a year ago. What now - I don’t know, maybe there is a sewerage system on paper, maybe it was reported somewhere that it was built. I have no doubt that this is so.
From Kobylin’s point of view, the problem is not even that the promised sewerage system does not exist. What angers him much more is that the residents of Mirny were fed with promises until the very last moment. People built large houses, hotels with 3-4 floors. It is simply impossible to service these without a central sewer system: the only reasonable alternative, a septic tank, requires careful control of the drain, into which detergents and toilet paper should not fall. How to achieve such accuracy from hotel residents? As a result, most owners pour dirty water directly into the drainage system; So,
Apparently, they do it in my hotel, judging by the aroma spreading from the open hatch for some reason right there on the corner. From the drainage, wastewater flows into nearby lakes - wintering grounds for migratory birds - and from there into the Black Sea. In itself, such a system is not something unprecedented for Russian seaside resorts, but Kobylin explains that in the Imereti Lowland, located four meters below sea level, it is especially dangerous: “Drainage pipes become clogged and stop letting groundwater in. In three or four years, after a good rainfall, the village of Mirny will simply drown. Of course, the management will say: they shit in the drainage, so it’s their own fault. Where else to shit? The alarm needs to be sounded now. And who will do this if everything is already over, everyone has reported and the picture from the helicopter is beautiful?”
Sounding the alarm would not be enough for the energetic Kobylin. Looking out of his window onto the street at the end of 2012, he noticed that the gas pipes had already been laid, nothing was being dug under the sewer pipes, and at the same time they were going to lay asphalt. He realized that the Rostov vacuum nanosewage system was preparing to share the fate of many other innovative projects and remain, at best, a beautiful drawing, and sent a request to the local administration. The answer was extremely cynical: for such and such reasons there will be no sewerage system, but if you want it, build it yourself.
To my chuckle, Kobylin replies: “Why are you laughing? That's exactly what we did."
Having agreed with the owners of houses in his part of Mirny, Victor, with the help of a former classmate at the Omsk Automobile and Road Institute, made a sewer network project, and within several months, “opening the doors of offices with a horn,” in his own words, received numerous approvals. As a result, over the summer and part of the fall of 2013, residents installed a private sewer network. The planned Olympic asphalt was already laid on top of it, and now in the right half of Mirny, when looking from the sea, the air is much fresher than in the left.
I look at photographs that chronicle the construction in detail. Kobylin, who in some photographs stands in person at the bottom of a ditch with a shovel in his hands, apparently carries this photo album in his car all the time. There really is something to be proud of. I ask how fair it is that part of the village is now in a better position. “If we had been warned earlier that there would be no sewage system, we would have reached an agreement with the entire village and would have built a network for everyone ourselves. Now we are ready to sell our sewer system to the administration so that they can continue to build it for everyone, at the price at which it cost us - it’s definitely cheaper than if they had built it themselves. But so far no one is having such conversations with us.”
Construction cost each of the cooperators approximately 185 thousand rubles. A lot of money, but many here, apparently, thanks to the holiday season and the wonderful climate that allows them to harvest three vegetable crops a year, could afford it. “People here have the opportunity to live a little better than in many other places in Russia,” says Kobylin. “And we have a little more time to think about how we live, and how we can make our lives better.” For him, the Olympic Games mean an opportunity for change that should be taken advantage of, regardless of the incompetent government. “I do this to my guys.” and said at the meeting: if there were no Olympics, Mirny would never have become so beautiful on the outside. Inside, a lot needs to be changed, and we will start doing it from below. changes, and then we will put pressure on management and get from them what we need.”
State Farm “Russia” is another village in the Imereti Lowland, it is located behind the Olympic Park, right on the seashore not far from the border with Abkhazia. Unlike Mirny, “Russia” has its own section of the beach, and with it its own problems.
Here we meet local environmentalist and social activist Natalya Kalinovskaya. I tear Natalya away from her conversation with the man in overalls - this is a representative of the responsible economic service who came at Kalinovskaya’s request to inspect the clogged storm drains. Kalinovskaya makes him lean straight towards the drainage holes, showing leaves, candy wrappers and empty plastic bottles packed under the bars. She has the loud and energetic voice of a person who is confident in her rightness and accustomed to defending her opinion. Clogged drains can lead to flooding - the most feared and most likely disaster here in the lowlands. Having dealt with the water utility, Kalinovskaya drops into the house for an impressive stack of documents and takes me on a tour of the village. Almost everything that catches my eye is criticized: here are the gas pipes that are already familiar to me, in which there is no gas (Kalinovskaya claims that the Olympic flame burned “from a cylinder,” although I am inclined to think that this is a local myth). Here are wooden pillars installed instead of old reinforced concrete ones. Here
Drying cypress trees, new asphalt laid close to their trunks. Here are yellowing palm trees, stuck, as the ecologist explains, directly into a two-meter layer of crushed stone and sand, which was used to fill the lowlands for the construction of Olympic facilities. Judging by the story, for almost every tree, for every flowerbed and piece of sidewalk, Kalinovskaya, at the head of a group of local residents, fought tooth and nail, and sometimes this struggle ended in victory. Here, as in Mirny, at first glance it is very clean and cozy; I can only notice the shortcomings after prompting. However, I guess that it was precisely for the sake of this first positive impression that everything was done.
We go out to the central square. Around the brand new but non-working fountain, teenagers with toy pistols are running after each other. Elderly women are sitting on a bench.
– Are you admiring the fountain? - Kalinovskaya calls out to them, who seems to know all the local residents without exception.
– Yes, Natasha, we just wanted to talk to you about him. We come here every single day, but it doesn't work. Well, at least watch it once!
– And this gift to us from the governor, a singing and dancing fountain, costs eight million rubles. To turn it on - there's a special booth - guys from Krasnodar must come, we don't have such smart ones here. They press the button and it starts working. This is if there is a holiday or someone important is coming. Very beautiful, by the way!
“Well, we can’t find these boys,” the women get upset.
In general, there is a special attitude towards Krasnodar residents here: according to local views, all troubles are to blame not so much on the distant Moscow authorities, but on the middle link, most often at the level of the administration of the Krasnodar region. A mythology has developed according to which somewhere there, in Krasnodar, the full-flowing financial Olympic Amu Darya diverged to irrigate the pockets of officials and businessmen, never reaching the Imereti Lowland.
Having learned that I am a journalist, the grandmothers immediately report that someone worked on the construction of stadiums and built “two two-story and one four-story” here on the state farm. This “someone,” of course, is from the outside, while the locals were left with only debts - people took out loans from banks to get a hotel license for 200-300 thousand rubles, and much fewer guests came to the Olympics than they expected.
– Has there been a season in recent years? - I ask.
“It’s been four years since I’ve been gone.”
- Will it happen this year?
– Have you turned on the TV at all lately? There they send everyone to Crimea, but here in Sochi everything is supposedly very expensive, everything is for the rich.
Vladimir Putin said exactly this during a recent direct line: “After all, you yourself said that world-class and high-level hotels were built in Sochi. This means that there will be different categories of vacationers in Crimea and Sochi. In Crimea, the infrastructure is designed for people with low incomes; they will not be able to afford luxury hotels in Sochi.” The president’s words fit into the stereotype, because of which many Russians did not even seriously think about going to their home Olympics. At the same time, residents of Mirny and the Rossiya state farm convinced me that during the Olympic Games it was possible to stay here without any problems for a rather modest amount of 500 to 1,500 rubles per day per person. In a normal summer season, you can spend the night for 250.
After briefly discussing the gas problem (the grandmothers heard on TV that it would be supplied in the summer, but Kalinovskaya refuses to believe it), we say goodbye and go to the embankment.
In my opinion, the word “embankment” is more consistent with the city bank of the Neva or Moscow River. I can imagine the sea embankment in Odessa or Nice. At the seaside state farm “Russia” you expect to see a beach. However, there is no beach here anymore.
A narrow strip - about five meters wide - of pebbles and stones separates the sea from the gentle concrete slope. At the top there is a pedestrian road with benches and lanterns, and a red bicycle path is marked along it. In all this heat, even at 22 degrees in April, there is not a single tree on the stone structure.
“And here we had a hundred-meter beach,” Kalinovskaya ironically points to the concrete slide.
- Why was this built? For beauty?
“This beauty is washed away by the sea every time.” When there is a storm, everything here is covered in stones, these benches hang on those trees, and then the Ministry of Emergency Situations pumps out water in the village.
– Where will people rest now?
– Walk along the embankment
– Where can we put umbrellas and sunbeds?
- That's all. Walk or lie on concrete at 37 degrees in the shade.
The clean pebble beach was a competitive advantage of “Russia”, distinguishing the village from most coastal resorts. If in Sochi almost the entire coastline is divided between hotels and sanatoriums, then the Imereti coast, from the mouth of the Mzymta to the border river Psou, was famous for its wide public beach, for which many tourists stopped here, thirty kilometers from the temptations of the big city. The embankment on a concrete embankment, however, was erected not only for decorative purposes: the cargo port built at the mouth of the Mzymta, which served the construction of the Olympic Park facilities, was stopped
Washing of river pebbles onto the shoreline. Without this natural process, the entire Imereti Lowland, and with it the stadiums, risked being washed away into the sea. The multi-kilometer embankment should serve as protection from storm waves, but, according to Kalinovskaya, it copes with this function poorly. Alternative projects that use global experience in the construction of such structures, the ecologist is sure, could preserve the beach and provide reliable protection to the lowlands. “We are not against beauty, we are normal, adequate people. We're just saying it could have been done differently. Leave the beach at its width and then make two-tier terracing. It would be cheaper, and no one would be washed away - neither people nor the embankment. You see, a natural monument of world significance, protected by UNESCO - here it is, filled with concrete. But no one listens to us, we are locals, we are fools.”
“We know how to paint our lips,” Natalya sums up. “I said right away: they’ll catch up with the bears and gypsies, play the balalaika, treat them to caviar and pour vodka. And so it happened. They say it right on TV, people, go to Crimea before they mess it up. They are happy there now, and then, like us, they will live at the construction site for three or four years.
The sun is rapidly sliding into the sea, the screams of the youth resting on a narrow rocky strip near the shore are becoming louder, and the sound of broken glass is heard. Kalinovskaya decisively takes out her phone and dials the number of the district police officer:
- Darling, have you been to the beach lately? Come on in, otherwise our beautiful youth have gotten naughty.
I ask if she’s not too strict: Friday evening, south, sea, and no one seems to be fighting yet.
“They’re not fighting yet, and they’re not drowning anyone yet.” And let them at least clean up after themselves and take care of at least the good things that are left for now.
Kalinovskaya sets off home with a firm gait, along the way greeting everyone she meets and discussing in whose pockets the village gas could have ended up. I decide to walk straight along the embankment to the Olympic Park to finally see the stadiums familiar from sports broadcasts without looking through the fence. The area is quite crowded: rare off-season tourists, local fishermen rushing on bicycles to the pier for the evening bite, athletes (apparently undergoing some kind of training here) on evening jogging. I pass the pier, gradually there are fewer and fewer passersby, and a disgustingly familiar three-meter fence grows on the right. Soon the Olympic venues appear behind it. I hope that somewhere in this fence there will be a wicket or gate leading to the desired Olympic Park, I walk a kilometer or two and come to a dead end: right in front of me, the same fence crosses the embankment and goes into the sea. On the left, the waves of the Black Sea crash against the stones; on the right, behind a high fence, the famous Olympic fountain dances to Tchaikovsky's waltz. I turn around and wander back along the alley of half-dried palm trees stuck into the dusty gravel, until the pier, illuminated by fishermen’s lanterns, like a Christmas tree with a Christmas garland, appears in the distance again.
01. Torch, “Big” and “Ice Cube”.
Sochi Olympic Park is the main site of the 2014 Winter Olympics. It was here that all the main action of the Games took place, and after their completion, various sports events are held here. The park is located in the Adler region, in the Imereti Lowland, right on the Black Sea coast.
02. Part of the Adler Arena, a training skating rink for figure skating and the Iceberg.
The most important thing in the park are the sports facilities. Six stadiums are located in the form of a circle: “Fisht” (opening and closing of the Olympics), “Shayba” (second hockey arena), “Bolshoi” (main ice palace), “Ice Cube” (), “Adler Arena” () and "Iceberg" ( and ). In the center of the circle there is a huge torch in which the fire of the games burned. A wall of champions of the games was also installed on the square and a Formula 1 track was built. An amusement and amusement park, Sochi Park, was built next to the sports facilities.
03. Torch and “Fisht”.
Such a cluster of objects of the same type in one place is beneficial during the Olympic Games themselves, but what to do with them after is a big question. For many years it was said that the objects were prefabricated and would be transported to other regions of Russia. This immediately seemed absurd, and after construction it became completely clear that nothing could be transported. Everything was left standing on the Black Sea shore.
04. Formula 1 track. Because of it, the Olympic Park is now constantly covered with a large number of fences and it is best to move around it on bicycles. By the way, they are allowed on the track once a week and you can ride like a real F1 pilot before the race.
The Fisht is undergoing expensive construction work again: it is being prepared for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. An amazing thing: in Krasnodar there are two football clubs playing in the RFPL - Krasnodar and Kuban. The owner of Krasnodar and the Magnit chain of stores, Sergei Galitsky, has a new and purely football stadium for his club, which in the spring of 2015 became the bronze medalist of the Russian Championship. But the regional capital was left without a World Cup, despite the huge interest in football. There is no football team in Sochi, there has been no interest from fans for even longer, but it was the resort city that won the World Cup.
05. 40,000-seat Fisht Stadium, where the opening and closing of the 2014 Olympics took place. It cost approximately 20 billion rubles, which is 2.5 times more expensive than analogues.
The Shayba ice hockey arena with 7,000 seats is one of the most modest construction projects of Sochi 2014. They spent “only” 3.4 billion rubles on it, which is about 1.5 times more expensive than its analogues. Minor matches of the Olympic hockey tournament were held here. Nowadays the All-Russian Children's Sports and Fitness Center is located here.
07. Next to the “Shaiba” there is the most grandiose object of the Olympic Park - the Bolshoi Ice Palace.
The 12,000-seat Bolshoi Palace cost almost 10 billion rubles, which is 2.5 times higher than its analogues. A spectator seat at the Bolshoi stadium costs as much as a Toyota Corolla. But building is not enough: you also need to maintain the object. During the Olympics, the Russian Hockey Federation complained that one day of work for the Bolshoi cost 1 million rubles, which is a fabulous amount. They are trying their best to load the facility even after the Olympics. The 2014 Channel One Cup (Euro Hockey Tour stage) and the 2015 KHL All-Star Game took place here. Since the 2014/15 season, Bolshoi has become the home arena of the newly created Sochi hockey club. Also, for the second year now, the arena has served as a venue for the final festival and Gala match of the Night Hockey League, a project personally sponsored by the President of Russia.
The Sochi hockey club was organized very quickly in the summer of 2014. Coach Vyacheslav Butsaev immediately managed to lead the team to the playoffs of the Kontinental Hockey League, where in the spring of 2015 they lost to the regular season winners CSKA Moscow in the first round. Haste is very noticeable in everything that concerns the club itself. Unsuccessful logo and corporate identity, unclear marketing, mediocre attributes, lack of a school and youth team, weak press service, etc. As the debut season progressed, Sochi began to experience financial problems, which became even more acute after the resignation of the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, Alexander Tkachev, in April 2015. It is likely that this year the team from the regional capital, “Kuban”, which played in the VHL, will cease to exist. There the money “unexpectedly” ran out. The team, of course, is more important to the resort of Sochi, and in June the debts were repaid. Despite all the disadvantages, HC Sochi is interesting both as one of the features of an all-season resort, and as simply an interesting participant in the KHL championship, where fans can have a pleasant trip, and where the same KHL All-Star Game can be held.
The most modest object of the Games is the Ice Cube, a curling arena. The 3,000-seat stadium cost a billion rubles. After the Olympics, almost all domestic Russian curling competitions, educational and training events for Russian national teams, as well as the emerging super cups (qualifying tournaments for the European and world championships) were transferred to it. There was so much desire to load the facility that some athletes were already tired of Sochi. In April 2015, the arena hosted the world championship among mixed pairs (double mixed) - a discipline included in the 2018 Olympic program.
10. Last May was the Russian Curling Championships, in which I had the chance to participate.
If the decision to hold the Winter Olympics in the subtropics was absurd, then using the Olympic Park as a Formula 1 track is an interesting solution. There are plenty of large concrete spaces around, expensive chain hotels and small guest houses too, and the airport is nearby. The Black Sea is within walking distance. To go to Sochi for the weekend for the Russian Grand Prix, to “touch the history” of the Olympics, to swim in the sea and visit the mountains in Krasnaya Polyana - the public who has money should be happy. There are enough wealthy people in Russia and directing their flow to Sochi, forcing them to spend money on expensive pleasures (and F1 is always expensive), is a good option.
A year after the Games, the Wall of Champions of the Games was opened in the Olympic Park. By the way, “Wall of Champions” is the name of the wall at the circuit in Montreal, Canada, where in 1999 three Formula 1 champions crashed their cars. The Sochi Wall consists of two pyramids, symbolizing snow-capped mountains. The pyramids contain multi-colored plaques with the names of Russian Olympic and Paralympic medalists.
13. At the 2014 Paralympic Games, also held in Sochi, immediately after the Olympics, Russia confidently won the medal count. Of the 80 medals, 30 gold, 28 silver and 22 bronze were won. The closest pursuer, Germany, has only 9 gold medals.
14. 88 countries of the world were represented at the 2014 Olympics, which is a new Olympic record for the Winter Games.
15. Russia became first in the medal standings of the Games. Of the total 33 medals, 13 are gold, 11 are silver and 9 are bronze.
16. Nearby are the Olympic rings - the object of constant photo sessions for tourists.
An indoor speed skating center with an Olympic 400-meter track is a rare phenomenon in the world. On the territory of the former USSR there are such in (Belarus) and Astana (Kazakhstan). Russia had three: in Moscow (“Krylatskoe”), and Chelyabinsk (“Ural Lightning”). The facilities are extremely in demand for training and competition by speed skaters, as modern speed skating has gone under the roof. And now the fourth center was built in Sochi - Adler Arena. Alas, its only one of all the Games facilities was repurposed into a tennis academy. Of course, tennis in Sochi has great traditions, but it can be practiced at other facilities that are not as unique as the skating center.
17. Adler Arena is one of the most beautiful venues of the Games, because the skating stadium cannot but be beautiful.
18. Tennis is worth being happy about, but it was realistic to find another place for the tennis academy. About 7.5 billion rubles were spent on the facility (2.5 times more expensive than analogues). One spectator seat in an 8,000-seat arena cost 925 thousand rubles.
19. Anna Chakvetadze finished with tennis and... Maria Sharapova Surprisingly, she turned out to be one of the last torchbearers of the Olympic flame. It has nothing to do with Sochi, it’s a summer sport, but come on! Born in Sochi, Olympic champion (Sharapova did not win the Olympics, although they are not particularly rated in tennis) and winner of Grand Slam tournaments Yevgeny Kafelnikov remained out of work. Ugly!
20. Between the Adler Arena and Iceberg there is a training arena for figure skating - now it is the Volosozhar and Trankov Figure Skating Center. Tatyana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov became Olympic champions in pairs figure skating. There is a training center for figure skating and short track speed skating. For example, in May 2015, the Russian short track national team trained there. There is also public skating for everyone.
21. Many consider the Iceberg to be the most beautiful arena of the Games. This is definitely the most successful arena, as it hosted competitions in figure skating and short track speed skating, where Russia won a scattering of medals. The 12,000th "Iceberg" cost 9 billion rubles - 2.3 times more expensive than its analogues. At first they wanted to transport it to another region, then repurpose it into a cycling track, and then they said that such a base was needed by athletes. Before the Games, the arena hosted test Grand Prix Finals in figure skating and Russian championships in short track speed skating and figure skating. After the Olympics, figure skaters came here only once with a national championship. Representatives of both sports are no longer going to hold competitions at the facility. Only commercial ice shows stage their performances here. The spending of the Olympics is clear.
The problem with the Olympic Park and its facilities is the distance from where people live. Directly from here it takes from 40 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on traffic jams in Adler. Even from neighboring Adler, and the park lies behind it, it takes some time to get there. was good because all its objects are located close to residential areas and are people-oriented. Yes, by Kazan standards, something is located on the outskirts, but this is not an option with Sochi, where you need to go not just to another city, but even further. By the way, the winter one is also being built more or less within the city and not far from residential areas.
Nevertheless, they try to hold all sorts of events in the OI Park. In October 2014, for the first time in Russia, the Formula 1 Grand Prix took place on a local track. This year was marked by the Olympic Sky air show held at the end of May, and in April, racing drivers competed here as part of the Russian Rally Cup stage. Sochi Autodrom also serves as the venue for the Arctic Cup stages of the Mitjet 2L touring car series. On October 11, Sochi will again host Formula 1, with which a contract has been signed for racing until 2020.
24. The fifth stage of the open championship of the Krasnodar region Mitjet 2L - “Victory Cup” took place on May 9 and 10. 9 cars took part in the race.
25. Igor Muravlev became the winner of the race in the Semi PRO category.
26. Black Sea coast of the Imereti Lowland. Five minutes from the Olympic Park.
27. Abundance of fishermen. Don't forget that people live here.
28. From the park almost to the border with Abkhazia there is an embankment. It's a pleasure to ride bicycles on.
29. Road to the clouds. BAR, Jaguar and Joradn? :)
30. Black Sea.
31. A site next to one of the hotels.
32. Bridge Resort is among the most decent local hotels. High quality, but also very expensive. The food is excellent. If finances allow, feel free to choose it.
33. The hotel has several buildings in addition to the main one. They are named after world capitals: Tokyo, Beijing, Istanbul, Paris, London, Vienna, Sydney. I am happy to return here.
34. In early May, the Russian national beach soccer team conducted its training sessions at the hotel site. Who doesn’t know, unlike regular football, the guys are the strongest in the world. Russia won the last two World Cups, breaking the hegemony of the Brazilians. She also has “gold” at the 2014 European Championship and four victories in the Euroleague. All the stars were in Sochi. Goalkeeper Andrey Bukhlitsky I remember it very well, because at the coolest children’s festival “Locoball” we had a station (interregional tournament) named after him. It's funny that the captain of the team Ilya Leonov, if I’m not mistaken, I regularly wished for a pleasant appetite at meals. At the end of the training camp, from May 11 to 13, two teams of the Russian national team, as well as the teams of Azerbaijan and Belarus, held a mini-tournament here called the RFU Cup. I thought about taking a photo, but someone was already taking pictures for the BeachSoccerRussia portal and I decided to postpone photographing beach soccer until next time. It would be interesting, of course!
37. Mountains can already be seen from Abkhazia, a part of Georgia controlled by an unrecognized government supported by Russia. The latter traditionally provides assistance to separatists - in addition to Abkhazia, in South Ossetia and Transnistria. There are people who like to travel to such territories, but it’s safer to stay where at least some laws apply.
40. Mountains in Abkhazia.
41. Beautiful!
42. Let's return to the evening Olympic Park. Colorful musical fountain. Average and the repertoire is monotonous. This is not Barcelona.
43. “Big” in the night. Notice how massive the staircase and the arena itself are. It takes quite a long time to get to your place from the parking lot or from the bus stop (in addition to a long trip from Sochi).
In the year since the Olympic Games, little has changed in the coastal cluster. Only the Formula 1 track has been added. The objects are all standing, do not appear to be falling apart and are more or less in use. The only exception is “Fisht” - an eternal construction site. The layout of all this is not the best, especially for subsequent operation, imperfections, endless fences and fences, empty checkpoints and parking lots - it’s all there. And, of course, endless asphalt spaces along which you walk and don’t see the end.
44. "Fisht".
During the Olympic Games, a number of media outlets published photo collections of objects from past Games that are no longer in use. Like, “they” also have objects standing idle, like this is an Olympic feature. Moreover, the selections contain the same arenas: Sarajevo 1984 (thirty years ago!), Athens 2004, Beijing 2008. Using as an example the capital of a country that was formed from the fragments of the former Yugoslavia and survived a major war is very appropriate, yes. As well as remembering the laziest nation in the EU, whose services in organizing the Olympics the IOC decided to honor. Nobody really remembers “winter” Vancouver, Turin or Salt Lake City.
45. The park is deserted in the evening.
46. Even the queue for the Olympic rings is not too busy.
47. Recruits of CSKA sports companies are preparing to take the military oath. The patriotic frenzy intensified in connection with the May 9 holiday. For several days in a row, the same 10 songs about the war were played in the park from morning to evening.
The main message of the country's leadership: the facilities must be used. We can still download sports ones. Things are not so rosy with non-sports people. Instead of adapting everything to a new life, demolishing something, rebuilding and repurposing something, everything remains as at the Games. Like a gradually decaying symbol of past victories. Several times a year, the old man will continue to be dressed in a military jacket with awards, reminding him of how good it once was. The taking of the military oath by athletes and the amusing 8 goals of the head of state in the gala match of the Night Hockey League fit well into this series. Alas.
49. A hotel behind several walls of fences. They make me feel uncomfortable.
Although the stadiums are occupied, huge amounts of money are spent on their maintenance. In Sochi the temperature is above zero almost all year round, and in the summer it is very hot. Ice complexes in the subtropics are expensive. Moreover, built on such a grand scale. At the same time, the internal debt of the Krasnodar Territory is about 130 billion rubles. Of course, it’s great that several thousand children and young athletes have the opportunity to go to camps in Sochi, but at whose expense? The effectiveness of all this is very low. Throughout Russia, it was possible to build tens of thousands of sports grounds, palaces and swimming pools, and maintain them for many years. Instead, they got a one-time event, whose effect on the country’s image was dissipated by its own hands literally a couple of weeks after the end of the Games. The lucky ones will visit Sochi, but what should the rest of the residents do?
50. Iceberg is especially beautiful at night.
51. But looking at its decoration up close, you can’t perceive it as the most beautiful object. Unattractive materials.
52. Behind the Adler Arena, the Olympic Media Center was built, accommodating up to 8,000 people. In November 2014, it hosted the World Chess Championship Match between Norwegian Magnus Carlsen and Indian Viswanathan Anand.
53. Nearby is the most beautiful local hotel - Tulip Inn. Surprisingly: it’s difficult to find places there, despite the very high cost of rooms and the unfortunate location at the intersection of two highways.
Of course, like any sports fan who also works in it and sometimes even competes, I would like to come back here. I don’t know in what capacity and for what event. It is warm here, pleasant air, beautiful sea, there is a place for cycling, beautiful and majestic mountains in the distance - this is another reason to go to
2014.
Geographical characteristics
In the system of physical-geographical zoning of the Caucasus (Gvozdetsky, Smagina, 1986; Devdariani, 1986), the Imereti Lowland is part of the Transcaucasian depression region of the Colchis province (subprovince of the Colchis foothills of the Sochi-Adler district, the continuation of which in Abkhazia is the district of the North Colchis foothills).
The Imereti Lowland is part of a wide coastal plain between the Psou and Mzymta rivers. The plain is located in the altitude range from 0 to 50 m above sea level. The origin of the lowland is accumulative; it is composed of Pleistocene and Holocene alluvial, marine, lacustrine and swamp deposits. The lowland is separated from the sea in places by a raised coastal sand bank. In the foothills, the Imereti Lowland abuts hills composed of Paleogene and Neogene rocks.
A special feature of the area is the presence of deep swamps, which are overgrown lakes filled with silt and peat. The Mzymta River had a significant influence on the formation of the Imereti Lowland, which, during periods of repeated large floods, formed narrow estuarine accumulations of pebbles far in front of the shore line.
On the territory of the lowland, before the construction of the Olympic facilities for the 2014 Olympics, there were settlements: Nizhne-Imeretinskaya Bay, state farms "Russia", "Southern Cultures", the village of Mirny.
Climate
In the area of the Imereti Lowland there is a fairly high average annual air temperature of + 13°C, which is close to the average annual temperature of the planet. This territory, due to high absolute air humidity and a decrease in effective radiation, has an average annual temperature 3°C higher in relation to the solar climate, and 3-5°C higher in relation to the mid-latitude sum of the annual radiation balance, which equates it to areas located 300-400 km closer to the equator. The average temperature of the coldest month in the village. Leselidze +5.5°C, the number of frost-free days in this area is from 250 to 294.
Flora and fauna
The Imereti Lowland is the only landscape of Colchis lowlands and swamps for the territory of Russia, their extreme northern variant. As of 2009, data from an analysis of the vegetation of the swamp-peaty lowland, carried out in the Abkhazian part of the plain, showed that the floristic similarity with other phytolandscapes of Abkhazia is very low and amounts to 19% for alder forests and only 5.9% for the main core of wetland vegetation , characterized by sharp ecological localization. It should be noted that there are unique species of flora and fauna known in the Russian Federation only, or mainly in the Imereti Lowland. Several dozen species of plants and 17 species of various animals are listed in the Red Books of various levels.
Due to the geographical location of the Imereti Lowland and the peculiarities of its landscape elements, unique avifaunal communities have formed here. In total, 214 species of birds were recorded on the territory of the Imereti Lowland, most of which are wintering and migratory. The Imereti Lowland is one of the few areas of the Black Sea region where 26 rare bird species listed in the Red Book of Russia are found. Periodically, in the Imereti Lowland, significant concentrations of wintering birds were noted (up to 3 thousand individuals per 1 sq. km), migrating to the Black Sea coast from the plains of the Ciscaucasia during cold, snowy winters. In such years, the area between the Psou and Mzymta rivers is one of the few, and for some species, the only point of stopping and waiting out unfavorable weather conditions.
The uniqueness of the Imereti Lowland was recognized by the tsarist government, in 1911 assigning it the status of a specially protected natural zone.
Currently, 179 species of birds are found on the territory of the natural park; they nest here, winter or stop during migrations. 18 of them are listed in the Red Book of the Krasnodar Territory and 16 species are listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation
Development of lowland territory and modern use
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The Imereti Lowland occupies an area of about 1300 hectares.
On the territory of the lowland there are the remains of a Christian temple of the 9th-10th centuries, on the basis of which it is currently planned to build a museum.
One of the first in the area of Nizhne-Imeretinskaya Bay was the Nekrasov Cossacks who formed the village of Marlinsky, most of the population of which in 2011 was resettled to the village of Nekrasovskoye, as their houses and land plots were seized for Olympic needs.
Currently, the main sports facilities of the coastal cluster of the XXII Winter Olympics in Sochi, the Olympic Park, a theme amusement park, a large number of hotels, and a railway station have been built on the territory of the Imereti Lowland. Also, at the mouth of the Mzymta, the port of Sochi Imeretinsky was built, which after the Olympics is planned to be transformed into a yacht marina.
In order to maintain the status of a key ornithological territory of international importance, as well as the conservation, restoration, reproduction of fauna and their habitat, a natural ornithological park was created in the Imereti Lowland with a total area of 298.59 hectares. The natural ornithological park consists of 14 clusters, 6 of which are located on low-mountain hills in the valley of the Psou River and another 8 directly on the Imereti Lowland.
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Literature
- Igor Petrovich Balabanov, Semyon Prokopyevich Nikiforov, Igor Stepanovich Pashkovsky.. - M.: Nedra, 2011. - 281 p. - ISBN 5836503885, 9785836503888.
- Akatov V.V., Akatova T.V., Bibin A.R., Grabenko E.A., Eskin N.B., Zagurnaya Yu.S., Zashibaev M.V., Kudaktin A.N., Loktionova O A.A., Perevozov A.G., Spasovsky Yu.N., Tilba P.A., Timukhin I.N., Tuniev B.S., Tuniev S.B., Chumachenko Yu.A.-Krasnodar: Copy-Print LLC, 2009. - 93 p.
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An excerpt characterizing the Imereti Lowland
Opposite from Nikolai there were green fields and there stood his hunter, alone in a hole behind a protruding hazel bush. The hounds had just been brought in, Nikolai heard the rare rutting of a dog he knew, Volthorne; other dogs joined him, then falling silent, then starting to chase again. A minute later, a voice was heard from the island for the fox, and the whole flock, falling down, drove along the screwdriver, towards the greenery, away from Nikolai.He saw horse-dwellers in red hats galloping along the edges of an overgrown ravine, he even saw dogs, and every second he expected a fox to appear on the other side, in the greenery.
The hunter, standing in the hole, moved and released the dogs, and Nikolai saw a red, low, strange fox, which, fluffing its pipe, hurriedly rushed through the greenery. The dogs began to sing to her. As they approached, the fox began to wag in circles between them, making these circles more and more often and circling its fluffy pipe (tail) around itself; and then someone’s white dog flew in, and after it a black one, and everything got mixed up, and the dogs became a star, with their butts apart, slightly hesitating. Two hunters galloped up to the dogs: one in a red hat, the other, a stranger, in a green caftan.
“What is this? thought Nikolai. Where did this hunter come from? This is not my uncle’s.”
The hunters fought off the fox and stood on foot for a long time, without rushing. Near them on chumburs stood horses with their saddles and dogs lay. The hunters waved their hands and did something with the fox. From there the sound of a horn was heard - the agreed signal of a fight.
“It’s the Ilaginsky hunter who is rebelling with our Ivan,” said the eager Nikolai.
Nikolai sent the groom to call his sister and Petya to him and walked at a walk to the place where the riders were collecting the hounds. Several hunters galloped to the scene of the fight.
Nikolai got off his horse and stopped next to the hounds with Natasha and Petya riding up, waiting for information about how the matter would end. A fighting hunter with a fox in torokas rode out from behind the edge of the forest and approached the young master. He took off his hat from afar and tried to speak respectfully; but he was pale, out of breath, and his face was angry. One of his eyes was black, but he probably didn’t know it.
-What did you have there? – Nikolai asked.
- Of course, he will poison from under our hounds! And my mousey bitch caught it. Go and sue! Enough for the fox! I'll give him a ride as a fox. Here she is, in Toroki. Do you want this?...” said the hunter, pointing to the dagger and probably imagining that he was still talking to his enemy.
Nikolai, without talking to the hunter, asked his sister and Petya to wait for him and went to the place where this hostile Ilaginskaya hunt was.
The victorious hunter rode into the crowd of hunters and there, surrounded by sympathetic curious people, told his exploit.
The fact was that Ilagin, with whom the Rostovs were in a quarrel and trial, was hunting in places that, according to custom, belonged to the Rostovs, and now, as if on purpose, he ordered to drive up to the island where the Rostovs were hunting, and allowed him to poison his hunter from under other people’s hounds.
Nikolai never saw Ilagin, but as always, in his judgments and feelings, not knowing the middle, according to rumors about the violence and willfulness of this landowner, he hated him with all his soul and considered him his worst enemy. He now rode towards him, embittered and agitated, tightly clutching the arapnik in his hand, in full readiness for the most decisive and dangerous actions against his enemy.
As soon as he left the ledge of the forest, he saw a fat gentleman in a beaver cap on a beautiful black horse, accompanied by two stirrups, moving towards him.
Instead of an enemy, Nikolai found in Ilagin a personable, courteous gentleman, who especially wanted to get to know the young count. Approaching Rostov, Ilagin lifted his beaver cap and said that he was very sorry for what happened; that he orders to punish the hunter who allowed himself to poison other people's dogs, asks the count to be acquainted and offers him his places for hunting.
Natasha, afraid that her brother would do something terrible, rode not far behind him in excitement. Seeing that the enemies were bowing in a friendly manner, she drove up to them. Ilagin raised his beaver cap even higher in front of Natasha and, smiling pleasantly, said that the Countess represented Diana both by her passion for hunting and by her beauty, about which he had heard a lot.
Ilagin, in order to make amends for the guilt of his hunter, urgently asked Rostov to go to his eel, which was a mile away, which he kept for himself and in which, according to him, there were hares. Nikolai agreed, and the hunt, having doubled in size, moved on.
It was necessary to walk to the Ilaginsky eel through fields. The hunters straightened out. The gentlemen rode together. Uncle, Rostov, Ilagin secretly glanced at other people's dogs, trying so that others would not notice, and anxiously looked for rivals for their dogs among these dogs.
Rostov was especially struck by her beauty by a small pure-dog, narrow, but with steel muscles, a thin muzzle and bulging black eyes, a red-spotted bitch in Ilagin’s pack. He had heard about the agility of the Ilagin dogs, and in this beautiful bitch he saw his Milka’s rival.
In the middle of a sedate conversation about this year's harvest, which Ilagin started, Nikolai pointed out to him his red-spotted bitch.
- This bitch is good! – he said in a casual tone. - Rezva?
- This? Yes, this is a good dog, it catches,” Ilagin said in an indifferent voice about his red-spotted Erza, for which a year ago he gave his neighbor three families of servants. “So you, Count, don’t boast about threshing?” – he continued the conversation he had started. And considering it polite to repay the young count in kind, Ilagin examined his dogs and chose Milka, who caught his eye with her width.
- This black-spotted one is good - okay! - he said.
“Yes, nothing, he’s jumping,” answered Nikolai. “If only a seasoned hare ran into the field, I would show you what kind of dog this is!” he thought, and turning to the stirrup man said that he would give a ruble to anyone who suspected, that is, found a lying hare.
“I don’t understand,” continued Ilagin, “how other hunters are envious of the beast and the dogs.” I'll tell you about myself, Count. It makes me happy, you know, to take a ride; Now you’ll get together with such a company... what’s better (he again took off his beaver cap in front of Natasha); and this is to count the skins, how many I brought - I don’t care!
- Well, yes.
- Or so that I would be offended that someone else’s dog catches it, and not mine - I just want to admire the baiting, right, Count? Then I judge...
“Atu - him,” a drawn-out cry was heard at that time from one of the stopped greyhounds. He stood on a half-mound of stubble, raising his arapnik, and once again repeated in a drawn-out manner: “A-tu-him!” (This sound and the raised arapnik meant that he saw a hare lying in front of him.)
“Oh, I suspected it,” Ilagin said casually. - Well, let's poison him, Count!
- Yes, we need to drive up... yes - well, together? - Nikolai answered, peering at Erza and the red Scolding uncle, two of his rivals with whom he had never managed to match his dogs. “Well, they’ll cut my Milka out of my ears!” he thought, moving towards the hare next to his uncle and Ilagin.
- Seasoned? - Ilagin asked, moving towards the suspicious hunter, and not without excitement, looking around and whistling to Erza...
- And you, Mikhail Nikanorych? - he turned to his uncle.
The uncle rode frowning.
- Why should I meddle, because yours are pure marching! - in the village they pay for the dog, your thousands. You try on yours, and I’ll take a look!
- Scold! On, on,” he shouted. - Swearing! - he added, involuntarily using this diminutive to express his tenderness and hope placed in this red dog. Natasha saw and felt the excitement hidden by these two old men and her brother and was worried herself.
The hunter stood on the half-hill with a raised arapnik, the gentlemen approached him at a step; the hounds, walking on the very horizon, turned away from the hare; the hunters, not the gentlemen, also drove away. Everything moved slowly and sedately.
-Where is your head lying? - Nikolai asked, approaching a hundred paces towards the suspicious hunter. But before the hunter had time to answer, the hare, sensing the frost by tomorrow morning, could not stand still and jumped up. A pack of hounds on bows, with a roar, rushed downhill after the hare; from all sides the greyhounds, who were not in the pack, rushed at the hounds and the hare. All these slowly moving hunters are screaming: stop! knocking down the dogs, the greyhounds shout: atu! guiding the dogs, they galloped across the field. Calm Ilagin, Nikolai, Natasha and uncle flew, not knowing how or where, seeing only dogs and a hare, and only fearing to lose sight of the course of the persecution even for a moment. The hare was seasoned and playful. Jumping up, he did not immediately gallop, but moved his ears, listening to the screaming and stomping that suddenly came from all sides. He jumped ten times slowly, allowing the dogs to approach him, and finally, having chosen the direction and realizing the danger, he put his ears to the ground and rushed at full speed. He was lying on the stubble, but in front there were green fields through which it was muddy. The two dogs of the suspicious hunter, who were closest to everyone, were the first to look and lay after the hare; but they had not yet moved far towards him, when the Ilaginskaya red-spotted Erza flew out from behind them, approached a dog's distance, with terrible speed attacked, aiming at the hare's tail and thinking that she had grabbed it, rolled head over heels. The hare arched his back and kicked even harder. Wide-bottomed, black-spotted Milka came out from behind Erza and quickly began to sing to the hare.
- Honey! mother! – Nikolai’s triumphant cry was heard. It seemed that Milka would strike and catch the hare, but she caught up and rushed past. The Rusak moved away. The beautiful Erza swooped in again and hung just above the hare’s tail, as if trying to grab him by the back thigh so as not to make a mistake now.
- Erzanka! sister! – Ilagin’s voice was heard crying, not his own. Erza did not heed his pleas. At the very moment when one should have expected her to grab the hare, he whirled and rolled out to the line between greenery and stubble. Again Erza and Milka, like a pair of drawbars, aligned themselves and began to sing to the hare; at the turn it was easier for the hare; the dogs did not approach him so quickly.
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Guest House Leadercan organize for you a most interesting and exciting vacation in the Adler district of Sochi. The windows of our Leader guest house overlook Sochi Park and the mountains. All rooms are bright, spacious and equipped with the latest technology. Rich excursion program ... |
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Adler (Imereti resort) Tavricheskaya st., 1/1 Price per person from 371 rub. 2 minutes to the sea. |
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Guest House Milaninvites you to relax in Adler, Imereti Bay. Five minutes from the Milan guest house there is the clear Black Sea and equipped beaches, developed infrastructure and a lot of entertainment. Additional services (parking, transfer, washing machine, barbecue, organization of excursions) will make your stay in Greater Sochi unforgettable, and reasonable prices will make it long ... |
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Guest House Arinalocated in Imereti Bay, 3 minutes from the Olympic Park and Formula 1 tracks, and is perfect for year-round recreation. There is a beautiful promenade with bicycle paths 200 meters away. Olympic Park Station, which provides direct access to the Krasnaya Polyana ski lifts, is a 10-minute walk from Arina Guest House ... |
Adler (Imereti resort) Obshchinnaya st., 17 Price per person from 500 rub. 2 minutes to the sea. |
Imereti Lowland - its location and development
The Imereti Lowland of Sochi is located in the Adler region and territorially occupies about one thousand three hundred hectares, and next to it, in close proximity to it, is the Black Sea. Probably no one is surprised why the Imereti Lowland became the home of the Olympic Park - the place is not only amazing, but one might even say magical. Look carefully at the photos taken of the Imereti Lowland from above - it’s absolutely breathtaking!
What is the Imereti Lowland Region famous for?
Imereti Lowland region is now built up with various Olympic venues, and Sochi Park with entertainment is also inconspicuously nestled on the side, around which hotels and inns have been built so that vacationers can conveniently get to attractions and parks on vacation in the Imereti Lowland. The Adler district is the southernmost point of the Krasnodar Territory and this is no secret. That is why the air temperature is persistently maintained here, allowing tourists to swim in the sea even in October.
In Sochi, the Imereti Lowland has become a real pearl - now vacationers from all over Russia come here and they are attracted not only by the Black Sea coast, but also by modern attractions and historically significant objects. Located between the Mzymta and Psou rivers, Imeretinka has a unique fauna and flora, which our state has taken under protection. There are fourteen ornithology centers alone - they study the breeding of birds listed in the Red Book.
Sochi, Adler district, Imeretinskaya lowland - life after the Olympics
Since the Olympic Games ended, the entire infrastructure began to be immediately remodeled for vacationers who come to the resort to relax by the sea. The Olympic village from a place of residence for athletes and sports commentators has turned into the Imereti resort, located in the Imeretinskaya lowland of the Adler district of Sochi. No special investments were required, since such a transformation was initially envisaged during the design. When the holiday season arrived and vacationers flocked to the sea, hotels were almost filled to capacity.
In Sochi, Adler region, the Imereti Lowland is an all-season resort that welcomes guests on the Black Sea coast all year round, to the great joy of tourists - because now they can plan vacations not necessarily for the summer, but at any time of the year.
How does the proximity of the mountains affect the life of the Imereti Lowland resort?
The fact is that for some time now our compatriots began to regularly go to the mountains for the New Year holidays, and hotels located at ski resorts are not able to accommodate everyone who wants to ski in December and January, and that’s where Imeretinka comes to the rescue. If you really want to visit the mountains, the Imereti Lowland will definitely help you with this. How? Yes, it's very simple:
- You will find out your vacation dates.
- Book rooms for these dates in one of the hotels in the Imereti Lowland.
- You arrive and check into your rooms, and the hotel management will organize a daily transfer to the mountains for you - after all, they are only about a forty-minute drive along a flat new highway.
The Imereti Lowland of the 2019 season will continue its traditions and will work in a standard mode - to receive and accommodate guests, feed and entertain them, organize educational excursions and please them in every possible way, because the image of the resort says that there is a cultural atmosphere and a European level of service - you can come and see for yourself.
Pricing policy of guest houses in the Imereti Lowland
So, you have finally decided to pamper yourself with your loved ones and go to the Imereti Lowland resort, whose guest houses attract you with bright colorful photographs and detailed descriptions of various additional services provided free of charge or for a purely nominal fee. Immediately, very tempting pictures of your vacation emerge in your imagination. It remains to find out what prices the Imereti Lowland offers for vacation? It's very easy to do.
You should know several rules, based on which you can independently determine what prices for accommodation in guest houses in Imeretinka depend on:
- Seasonality - more expensive in high season
- Proximity to the sea and Olympic venues
- Room comfort
Sochi Park, Imereti Lowland - rest of the Russian soul
The Imereti Lowland, the official website of which describes in all its glory the indescribable delight of all visitors to Sochi Park: both children and adults, reports that every visitor to this largest and most spectacular place with open-air entertainment in all of Russia will definitely experience a lot of positive sensations. It is on the official website of Imeretinsk that you can learn in detail about the work schedule of Sochi Park, the Imeretinsk Lowland of which has become a real home.
The Imereti Lowland, whose neighborhoods are located throughout the bay, offers tourists accommodation in all parts of the resort - both on the coast itself and in nearby villages. You can look at the map yourself and choose any area to book your accommodation - but keep in mind that the more respectable the area, the higher the prices for accommodation.
Why do tourists choose the Imereti Lowland?
Most tourists choose an area by the sea called the Imereti Lowland. Why? The Olympic sights are to blame for this - if only you knew what views there are at night: in the light of iridescent lights, moths flutter, everything spins, turns, blinks - you can watch this fascinating picture for hours, which is why our tourists prefer to rent rooms with view of Olympark. Our job is to warn you that such a neighborhood does not have the best effect on the cost of rooms, but the choice is always yours.
Imereti Lowland in October - velvet season on the seashore
It is in vain that many people think that with the onset of autumn, life stops in the Black Sea resorts - autumn is just beginning to creep into the Imereti Lowland in October. Don’t forget that the Adler region is the southernmost, and therefore in October the water in the Black Sea has not yet cooled down and the beaches are not completely empty.
Cottages of the Imereti Lowland
The Imereti Lowland rents out cottages to tourists in spring, winter, summer, and autumn, so you can safely count on separate accommodation in the Imereti Lowland at any time of the year. Cottages usually accommodate those who prefer a secluded holiday, who enjoy complete comfort and personal space without intrusive neighbors. There are plenty of cottages in Imeretinka, but where to stay in the Imereti Lowland is rather a rhetorical question. Rest and recovery in the Imereti Lowland is possible in boarding houses, where you can get additional services in the form of meals, room cleaning, laundry, which are so lacking during a separate stay in cottages or houses. Some prefer hotel chic and worry-free relaxation, others give economical and modest rooms - everyone has their own priorities. No one should be judged strictly, so, our dear tourists, go in search of adventure - Imeretinka is waiting for you.
Imereti Lowland- microdistrict related to Adler district, located in the interfluve of the Psou and Mzymta rivers. The Russian state border passes here. The microdistrict borders the village of Mirny and the state farm “Yuzhnye Kultury”.
This part Greater Sochi is a plain with a maximum height above sea level of 50 meters. On the territory Imereti Lowland there are muddy lakes similar to swamps, overgrown with peat. Plants listed in the Red Book grow here and about 20 species of rare animals live here.
Territory of the Imereti Lowland occupies about 1300 hectares. The Olympic Park and a number of other Olympic venues were built here. The main streets of the microdistrict are Nizhneimeretinskaya and Golubaya.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure of this part Greater Sochi is still quite poorly developed. The bulk of commercial properties, schools and kindergartens are mainly located in neighboring microdistricts - Merry, Blinovo, as well as in microdistrict Adler-Center.
During the construction of Olympic facilities, many residents of the microdistrict were resettled. On the site of private development, an Indoor Skating Center, an Ice Sports Palace and two Ice Arenas - Small and Large, as well as several hotels were erected. Instead of the demolished houses, a five-story residential complex and cottage community was built near the village of Veseloye.
The part of the microdistrict adjacent to the coast, as well as places free from Olympic buildings, remain quite suitable for recreation. Many modern hotels and sanatoriums have been built here along the seashore, including five-star ones (Radisson Blu Paradise Resort & Spa Sochi, Russian Seasons, Arfa Park Hotel). All of them are excellent places for relaxation and business conferences. The most famous hotels are “Caucasus”, “Imeretinsky”, “Azimut-Hotel Sochi”.
Beaches and attractions
Locality Nizhneimeretinskaya Bay, located in the lowlands, is distinguished by clear seas and magnificent beaches. There are few vacationers here, so this place is chosen by those who want to enjoy relative privacy.
Among the attractions of this place, one can note the natural ornithological park, which occupies part of the lowland area, where you can find about 30 species of birds from the Red Book.
Each of the Olympic venues on the territory Lower Imereti Lowland, is a separate attraction.
The immediate prospects for the development of the microdistrict are connected both with the Olympic construction and with the construction of new residential complexes.
